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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27995316">Keeping It Quiet</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAbi/pseuds/NekoAbi'>NekoAbi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Influencer AU, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:42:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,116</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27995316</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAbi/pseuds/NekoAbi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Virgil and Roman keep their relationship quiet on social media. Not silent, just quiet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>92</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Keeping It Quiet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Virgil stretched out and breathed deep as he slowly woke up. He immediately curled back in on himself and snuggled deeper into the pillow beneath him. The light behind the one closed curtain was bright, telling him that it was still daylight outside – the other opened curtain letting said daylight filter in and fill the room. He groaned and tried to pull the covers over his head and block out the light, but a chuckle from across the room had him opening his eyes.</p>
<p>“Good morning, sunshine.”</p>
<p>Virgil grunted and turned to shove his face into the pillow instead, meaning that he didn’t have to look at his stupid boyfriend’s dumb cute face and well… everything else about him.</p>
<p>Both of them were influencers of a sort; Virgil leaning more towards his videos and streams, while Roman was more about ‘self-photography’ as he called it. They both had decent audiences and a circle of friends that they collaborated with on a semi-regular basis. In fact, it was thanks to these friends that the two had even met in the first place – and it was at a convention, because the influencer life just never stopped.</p>
<p>There was just one thing that didn’t quite fit into this cookie-cutter routine of theirs.</p>
<p>Roman’s weight dipped the mattress as he joined Virgil back on the bed. He tapped the purple hair atop Virgil’s head, only getting a grumble in response, “C’mon, you wanna check my new post before I put it out?”</p>
<p>That had Virgil shooting up and grabbing Roman’s phone which he was dangling just before him. He analysed the picture and caption, snorting quietly at it.</p>
<p>It was a fairly standard mirror photo; Roman standing shirtless as usual, showing off while the rest of the room looked like an absolute mess. Yet, small things stood out. The very small pieces of black that seemed to peak out from beneath a mess of red and white on the floor, the crumpled sheets on the bed that clearly covered something human-shaped and the tiniest sliver of purple hair peaking out in the corner.</p>
<p>“I would zoom in just a little more, get rid of the hair, but the rest is good. Not too obvious.” Virgil said, handing the phone over and flopping back down.</p>
<p>“I just thought the hair added a little bit more to the mystery, but I’ll do as you wish…” Roman shrugged. Before he went back to edit the photo some more, Roman leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to Virgil’s forehead.</p>
<p>The two of them had yet to tell any of their audience that they were dating.</p>
<p>It had initially started as an accident.</p>
<p>After meeting at the convention and hitting it off, the two had – for lack of a better term – hooked up quickly. Roman posted most days and so when he took a picture in the hotel mirror and there was quite obviously someone else in the hotel bed behind him, his followers started to speculate wildly.</p>
<p>Roman had immediately found the humour, but Virgil had a harder time. He still agreed to go on a date with Roman, though. And then he’d agreed to another… and another… and so on, until they decided to try dating for real.</p>
<p>Virgil had one simple request before he said yes: they’d keep it quiet for a while. He didn’t want to deal with everyone in both their audiences finding out, possibly liking them as a couple and then potentially having to deal with the fallout if things didn’t work out in the end. Roman tried to convince him that everything would be fine, but Virgil was not budging an inch.</p>
<p>So, they began to date in secret. Or at least, partial secrecy. If anyone personally asked during Virgil’s stream if he was dating someone, he wouldn’t lie and say no. He’d just avoid giving out the details of who. Sometimes, Roman would take pictures while on dates with Virgil and caption them as ‘date night’ but avoided any revealing information, even if he responded to some comments with hinting emojis. Things stayed that way for a while.</p>
<p>But then Roman had a thought.</p>
<p>Inspired by his accidental hotel reveal, Roman pitched an idea to Virgil. They would continue to keep it a secret but drop small hints every now and then as to who it was. Either with a voice in distant background of a video, a body under the sheets in a photo or even mundane belongings in their vicinity or veiled flirtatious interactions.</p>
<p>Since months had passed and Virgil had finally found the funny side of what had happened, he agreed on a whim. The game had begun.</p>
<p>For close to three years now, the pair had been sneaking small hints into their content. Some accidental, some planned. The one stunt that was heavily planned was a little after Virgil had dyed his hair for the first time. He’d posted a video or two, streamed and shared a couple selfies online with his fresh, purple hair before Roman shared an image of himself reclining with a mess of brown hair visible beside him. That had ignited so many theories and fires; Virgil couldn’t help but enjoy reading them all.</p>
<p>One thing had been nagging at Virgil for a few weeks now, especially as he toyed with the ring that rested upon his finger after he had said yes to Roman only a couple of days ago. “When do we stop this?” He thought aloud, catching Roman’s attention.</p>
<p>The phone in Roman’s hand was placed aside and he pulled the quieter man into a loose embrace, “Whenever we want.”</p>
<p>“Okay, but… it feels like we need a good reason. Like… a point where it just kinda.. works, y’know?” Virgil mused, “People will ask why we stopped if we just randomly do it… and, I dunno, it would feel kinda awkward to just be like ‘because’…”</p>
<p>Roman hummed in agreement, running his fingers through Virgil’s hair to keep him slightly calm. “Well, I have <em>an</em> idea for when we could…”</p>
<p>“Can’t be much worse than any of the others. Give it to me.”</p>
<p>“Hush. My ideas are fantastic!” Roman huffed playfully before continuing, “My new <em>brilliant</em> idea is that we both, once they are here, share our favourite of our wedding photos to tell everyone…” Roman’s voice was soft and quiet, tender and loving.</p>
<p>Virgil immediately blushed and made several embarrassed sounds, “That’s so gay though…”</p>
<p>“Well, yes, we are both gay, Virgil.”</p>
<p>“You know what I mean!” Virgil lightly swatted at Roman’s shoulder, a grin pulling at his lips. “It’s just… that’s kinda cute and I hate it.”</p>
<p>“So, you’re on board?”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
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